Gaming Life in Japan

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Nintendo's brain training craze continues.

By Anoop Gantayat

The big news from Japan this past week? Ridge Racer 7 announced for the PlayStation 3? The arrival of such big titles as Ninety-Nine Nights, Mother 3 and Okami? Phantasy Star Universe set for Xbox 360?

No, no and no. As far as we're concerned, the big news is that a new brain training game wasn't announced. Yes, a full week without a game featuring an incredibly long title involving something about your brain or head being reinforced, with supervision by a sensei of some stature.

What a relief. Just last week, the pages of Famitsu held the announcement of two DS edutainment titles. Coming to us from TDK Core, the new Everyone's DS Seminar series gives DS owners the chance to refine their kanji and English vocabulary skills. TDK Core even got a Japanese dude, English learning master Tatsuya Nakada, to supervise the English game and put his name on the box.

Everyone's DS Seminar joins the following non-games that are set for release on the DS alone. The names below have been translated to English in some cases.

Simple DS Series Vol.7: The Illustration & Number Puzzle (D3)

Right Brain Master -- Gun Bullet Trainer (Bandai Namco)

Kanji ni Watari Tori (Success)

Atama wo Kitaete Asobu Something Something (Mega Cyber)

Play Through Read & Listen Picture Book For Kids 1 (Starfish SD)

Play Through Read & Listen Picture Book For Kids 2 (Starfish SD)

Play Through Read & Listen Picture Book For Kids 3 (Starfish SD)

Middle School English Vocabulary Taret 1800 DS (IE Institute)

English Target 1900 DS (IE Institute)

Polish Your Brain: DS Kanji Chapter (IE Institute)

Polish Your Brain: DS Math Chapter (IE Institute)

A few of those games are offensive attempts at capitalizing on the learning game craze. The worst offender is Bandai Namco Games. Gun Bullet was originally scheduled for the DS, but presumably without any brain training content. When the game finally saw official announcement, it had a brain training mode included, and the Right Brain Master (Unou no Tatsujin) label attached.

Only slightly less offensive is Mega Cyber's (deep breath!) Atama wo Kitaete Asobu Taisen Yajirushi Puzzle Happy Pappy-Inu Vector 1. This game was announced back before the DS was released as an "Action Battle Puzzle" game. It ended up with that incredibly long title, complete with "Atama wo Kitaete" at the start. Nintendo's Brain Trainer games start off with Nou wo Kitaeru, which is Japanese for "Work Your Brain." The Mega Cyber title's name is similar, meaning "Work Your Head."

The blame for this craze lays strictly with Nintendo, who's had the tenacity to dominate the top 10 charts with four non-games for the DS: Nou wo Kitaeru, Motto Nou wo Kitaeru, Yawaraka Atama Juku and Eigo Zuke. The first two are on their way to two million a piece. The third hit a million a long time ago and the fourth is on the way up.

Nintendo is fueling the fire with retail hate material. Here's a recent pamphlet:

The trend has even hit the airwaves. Earlier this week, while the Gaming Life in Japan crew was partaking of our morning Physical Jerks ritual at the Ministry of Fun Movement (MiniFuMu), we noticed on a nearby monitor a morning television show which had devoted a 30 minute segment to Nou wo Kitaeru and the effects it has had on a few house wives. Puzzle and non-games now dominate commercial space as well, as you can see in our commercial section a few pages down.

At times, it seems impossible to escape Nintendo's latest non-game trend. Which is why when we opened up this week's issue of Famitsu and glanced over the magazine's newcomer section, we were pleased to find such real games as a sequel to Mushi King, three games based off Pixar's upcoming Cars flick, a handful of love simulations (which support progressive scan -- an absolute must for delivering still artwork without interlacing trouble) and the latest pachinko simulator from Daito Giken.